Unreasonable force by Kingston police officers alleged, records show – Daily Freeman

Kingston, New York, police vehicles are shown in the parking lot of the city's police headquarters on Garraghan Drive on August 12, 2021. (Tania Barricklo/Daily Freeman, File)

KINGSTON, NY — Several accusations of unreasonable force by Kingston police officers were filed against the department between 2021 and 2023. Two of them, deemed “unfounded” by police, nevertheless resulted in lawsuits filed against the city and the police.

A response to a request made in August 2023 regarding records of disciplinary action against Kingston police officers has begun since 2021 and a record of settlements paid by the city in lawsuits against the department during this period was received in FEBRUARY. Until February, police initially delayed providing documents requested under the nation's Freedom of Information Act.

The repeal of Section 50-a of the Civil Rights Act, relating to the personnel records of New York police officers, firefighters, and corrections officers, made public the disciplinary records of police officers, firefighters, and corrections officers . The repeal was a response to nationwide demands for transparency regarding police records that were sparked by the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

After Floyd's killing, protesters in Kingston and around the world demanded reform of police policy and techniques as well as transparency in police record keeping.

According to records provided by Kingston, four complaints involving unreasonable force and/or unwarranted arrests by city police were filed in 2021. In all four cases, the officers were deemed by the department to have acted appropriately and the complaints were considered “unfounded”.

But one plaintiff, Melissa Echevarria, sued Kingston police, the city and unidentified officers in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, a federal court, over injuries she allegedly suffered as a result from a confrontation with police in November 2021. In Eschevarria's case, she claims she was injured on November 6, 2021, after being thrown to the ground by an unidentified Kingston police officer. The case remains open.

Another complainant, Corey Smith, filed a complaint regarding a traffic stop on February 12, 2020. According to the lawsuit against Kingston police and an unidentified officer, Smith's vehicle was impounded and he lost control of it. access. After Smith was acquitted, he filed and served a notice of claim in Ulster County Court for intentional property damage, negligence and mental infliction. A trial date will be set in August.

Stacy Sainsbury, who was arrested by Kingston police on September 14, 2021, filed suit against the city in April 2022, claiming the arrest at Dollar General, 363 Foxhall Ave., was “without a warrant.” Sainsbury, which sought $500,000 in damages, agreed to withdraw the case in May 2023.

Plaintiffs Josiah Parker and Asia Gordan, whose accusations of inappropriate police behavior were found by the department to be unfounded, did not file a lawsuit against the city or take other action.

In August 2022, Dawood Alzanam of Kingston filed suit in Ulster County Supreme Court against the city, municipal police and Officers Travis Wilber and Dylan Joslin-Peter regarding an incident that occurred on June 5, 2021 at the intersection from Broadway and Elmendorf Street. According to the complaint, the officers “assaulted, confined, improperly restrained, wrongfully arrested and wrongly imprisoned” Alzanam for disorderly conduct, a violation.

According to the suit, Alzanam was “detained” by police at HealthAlliance Hospital in Kingston for approximately two hours before being transferred to MidHudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie where the Taser prongs were removed from his face and his “fractured skull and its subdural hematoma” were treated. He was released from MidHudson Regional Hospital on June 7, 2021.

On March 13, 2022, Alzanam's disorderly conduct charge was “dismissed and sealed,” according to the lawsuit. He says city police “failed to properly discipline or supervise” the officers involved.

In September 2022, Alzanam withdrew his county court complaint and filed a federal complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, which has since been withdrawn.

Also in 2022, the department reported that Sandy Zhen filed a police complaint regarding the actions of Officers Jeremy Arciello and Kenneth Palmer when responding to a domestic dispute at her Broadway residence. In a report to the city's police commissioners, Deputy Chief Michael Bonse wrote that Arciello and Palmer failed to complete required paperwork after the initial call for service and “let their frustration with the two parties involved negatively affect their composure and behavior.”

According to Bonse's report, the officers “failed to act in accordance with our policies and procedures for handling domestic incidents.” The police provided no record of disciplinary action taken against the officers. Zhen did not pursue the complaint further.

In another incident, a “use of force report” was filed by Arciello on Jan. 19, 2023, after his arrest of Ian Berkeley Stewart of Kingston following a traffic stop on Albany Avenue during which Arciello said having “displayed” a gun as a “warning,” as well as “presence of an officer and verbal instruction of tasks.”

According to the report, Stewart was speeding and driving away from police who were trying to stop him. After the car was stopped, the officer “observed the driver, later identified as Ian Stewart, who appeared to be searching for something while in the driver's seat” and pulled out his handgun, saying to Stewart: “Don’t move and don’t look for anything. .”

Another officer allegedly removed Stewart from the vehicle, and Arciello then holstered his handgun, police said. Arciello's use of force was deemed justifiable and no further investigation was ordered. Stewart took no further action.

This was not the first dispute between Arciello and town residents and Palmer also has a history of complaints.

In January 2020, a $112,500 settlement was awarded to Fabian Marshall, who was awarded during a fight with Arciello and another Kingston police officer in September 2015, as compensation for pain and suffering, “physical injuries and any emotional distress” suffered during the incident.

In 2018, Adrin Broadhead claimed that Palmer roughed him up during an arrest while he was walking home from work. But Broadhead later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct in that case, closing the books on a dispute that community activists had held up as an example of how black men are treated in the city, with some of his supporters suggesting that his arrest was the result. to “walk while black”.

In November 2023, Randy Hinds requested body camera footage of an encounter with Sgt. Robert Farrell and Officer Kenneth Palmer. Hinds' complaint said that when he was arrested at Rondout Market following an argument with an employee, he was “overcharged” by Officer Kenneth Palmer for failing to show him identification when asked.

Hinds claimed that Palmer “continually pushed me into the back (while the two were leaving)” the store. No resolution of Hinds' allegations was included in the documentation provided by the city and no complaint has been filed by Hinds in any county or federal court.

In June 2023, Jennifer Sconiers complained to Police Chief Egidio Tinti that Officer Joslin-Peter did not take her domestic violence complaint seriously and that she was “rude and unprofessional.”

Sconiers wrote: “I am filing a full complaint against (Peter). This is an unfortunate example of why women don't want to call the police due to his behavior and lack of professionalism.

In a memo to the police commission, Tinti said Joslin-Peter was advised about not having his body camera on during the incident and about “the importance of recording all interactions between police and citizens “.

The department's slow response to the latest request for records stood in stark contrast to its rapid turnaround in 2021 when it was asked, under a Freedom of Information Act request, to provide 10 years of disciplinary records .